It’s tempting to gulp down coffee and energy drinks in order to snap out of a dreary funk, but there’s a price to pay for your added energy and alertness. High levels of caffeine tend to come with side effects.

Earlier today, there was speculation that the FDA might issue a declaration that effectively bans alcoholic beverages that contain caffeine and other stimulants. While the agency opted to not go to such lengths, it did announce that caffeine added to malt liquor qualifies as an “unsafe food additive” and sent warning letters to the makers of seven different drinks, giving them 15 days to come up with a plan for remedying the violation.

Reports say the the Food & Drug Administration is planning to announce today that caffeine is an unsafe food additive in alcoholic drinks. This would effectively ban a whole range of products like Four Loko, Joose and Sparks, which market themselves as a sort of boozed-up energy drink.

For years, young folks have been getting their buzz on with the help of fruit-flavored malt liquor concoctions like Sparks, Joose and Four Loko. This is a fact that has apparently just come across the desk of Senator Chuck Schumer of NY, who is now asking for federal help in getting these beverages out of the mouths of babes.

We now know that coffee doesn’t really help you stay alert, and that the only magic to be found in so-called Magic Power Coffee is a sudden disappearing act. So, is there any good news about the bean? Turns out there is, at least according to a new metastudy, which finds that coffee might help lower the risk of head and neck cancer.

When shopping for soda, it’s a reasonable assumption that store-brand colas have more or less the same amount of caffeine as the name brand, right? Or at least the same amount of caffeine from one bottle to another. Some scientists studied a wide variety of sodas, tested their caffeine levels and learned…not so much.

Mainstreet.com has put together a slide show of the most caffeinated “drinks” available on the market today. The really potent ones aren’t really made for drinking — they’re actually just liquid that you add to a regular drink in order to make it more caffeine-rich. The most potent one allegedly comes in a syringe-looking thing — because emptying something that looks like a syringe into a drink isn’t going to raise any eyebrows at work…

The New York Times has a study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest on the health effects of caffeine. The study analyzes various claims made about caffeine, and it also offers a useful chart listing the caffeine content in typical drinks and foods. For instance, at 320 milligrams per 16 ounces, a Starbucks grande coffee has over four times the 80 milligrams of caffeine of a Red Bull.

How decaffeinated is your decaf exactly? That’s what Consumer Reports aimed to uncover when they sent their shoppers to sample 36 cups of decaffeinated coffee from 6 locations of Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s, Seattle’s Best Coffee, 7-Eleven and Starbuck’s near their headquarters in Yonkers, NY. See the results, inside…

If you want decaf coffee on the go, your best bet is McDonald’s, says Consumer Reports: cups from Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, and Seattle’s Best Coffee varied unpredictably, spiking as hight as 20-30 mg of caffeine per serving, while McDonald’s was consistently under 5 mg. [Consumer Reports]

In a letter to John Manfreda, the administrator of the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the attorneys general of 28 states and Washington, D.C., and Guam say aggressive — and possibly fraudulent — marketing of energy drinks mixing alcohol and caffeine targets teenagers and young adults who buy nonalcoholic energy drinks.

Save money and stay away from Starbucks by making iced coffee better than the Seattle giant. Freeze leftover coffee in ice-cube trays, and toss the frozen coffee cubes into your next batch of iced coffee. The result: rich, delicious iced coffee that never becomes watery.

The Coca-Cola Company plans to list the caffeine content labels of all products sold in the U-S. It’ll start in May with cans of its flagship Coke Classic, then expand to its other brands during the rest of the year.

No word on how Coke compares to Pepsi. Any unfounded guesses? —MEGHANN MARCO

“Every company that adds caffeine to food should tell consumers how much they’re getting, so consumers can comparison shop and make their decisions accordingly,” said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “Pepsi deserves credit for voluntarily putting caffeine contents on labels. I don’t know why Coke and coffee companies are so jittery about letting their customers know how much they’re getting.”

Regular Pepsi contains 25 milligrams of caffeine per 8 oz, Diet Pepsi 24. “Pepsi One and Mountain Dew have more with 36 mg per 8 ounces. Brewed coffee varies, but a 16-ounce cup at Starbucks has around 260 mg, though the company doesn’t make that number easy to find.” Mmm, caffeine. Starbucks is sort of confusing. We’re not sure why they’d neglect to mention/hide how much caffeine is in coffee… isn’t it a selling point?—MEGHANN MARCO